THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

presented. It is claimed that there is a fundamental difference between these two types of concepts and that S-concepts are used only in the social sciences, not in the natural sciences; hence there is a fundamental difference between social and natural science. Also, several different kinds of S-concepts primary and derived, intra-cranial and extra-cranial, descriptions and evaluations, etc.- are discussed. 1. During the hundred years or so since Dilthey and others (re)raised the issue, arguments within the scientific community about the alleged differences between &dquo;Naturwissenschaften&dquo; and &dquo;Geisteswissenschaften&dquo; and related arguments about the nature of sociology and other &dquo;sciences of man&dquo; have tended to be long, frequent and heated. On the one hand, we find statements about the fundamental &dquo;unity of science&dquo; and declarations that sociology is &dquo;really&dquo; a &dquo;natural science&dquo;. It is suggested, then, that sociologists and other social scientists should adopt the principles of inquiry and general world view of the (other) natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology and so on). Only then, it i